Officiating Attrition: The Experiences of Former Referees Via a Sport Development Lens

Abstract

Referees are key sport personnel who have important responsibilities both on-and off-the field.Organized competition would not survive without referees, yet little is known about what cause referees to discontinue in the role. This research examines the experiences of former referees so that managers may better understand strategies that might encourage more referees to be retained. Fifteen previous basketball referees were interviewed about their refereeing experience. Ten themes emerged that were related to the sport development stages of referee recruitment, referee retention, and referee advancement. The results indicate that issues experienced during the retention phase (Problematic Social Interaction, Training/Mentoring, and Lack of Referee Community) and then at the advancing stage (Lack of Administrator Consideration, Administrator Decision Making, and Sport Policies) are linked to eventual departure from the role. Interestingly, off-court factors were reported as more influential in the decision to leave. Managerial strategies and implications are discussed.

The Experience of Former Women Officials and the Impact on the Sporting Community

“…To date, though, the majority of the research in the officiating context has examined only male officials (e.g., Kellett and Warner 2011;Rainey 1999). As the global shortage of officials persists (e.g., American Sport Education Program 2011; Kendall et al 2009), the survival of sports remains dependent upon strategies to recruit and retain officials (Titlebaum et al 2009;Warner et al 2013). Further, addressing the lack of women in officiating roles would both help alleviate the shortage while simultaneously promoting greater workplace gender equity.…”

“…Similarly, Kellett and Warner (2011) found FEMALE OFFICIALS 7 that developing a sense of community among current Australian Rules Football umpires was crucial to their retention. In their investigation of former U.S. based officials, Warner et al (2013) found that officials dropped out of the profession because of a perceived lack of referee community, managerial decision-making, and a lack of mentoring and continuing education.…”

“…While FEMALE OFFICIALS 10 there is a developing line of study exploring off-court/field experiences (Kellett and Shilbury 2007;Kellett and Warner 2011;Warner et al 2013) none of it has examined the experiences of females. While the workplace incivility literature has explored uncivil behaviors and actions which run counter to conventional workplace norms and appear to manifest more greatly among female and racial minority workers Lim et al 2008), there has been very little research exploring the impact of workplace incivility on the sporting community.…”

“…Although Warner et al (2013) did include female officials they also excluded any exploration of specific gendered differences.…”

“…In light of this, a nascent line of research has begun to explore the on-the-court and off-the-court experiences of officials (e.g., Kellett and Shilbury 2007;Kellett and Warner 2011;Warner et al 2013). …”